Systems and methods herein generally relate to print queues and more particularly to methods, systems, and devices that automatically generate print queues and attribute subsets.
In sophisticated printing environments print queues are used to perform a number of varied functions (sometimes referred to as print or save; print&save; or hold). For example, print queues can hold print jobs until the required processing apparatus is available, can redirect the print job to the most appropriate processing apparatus, etc., and print queues can supply attribute/value pairs to the print job. Such attribute/value pairs control the operating parameters of the mechanical processing devices (e.g., printers, finishing equipment, etc.) and software (e.g. color management software, imposition software) that eventually execute the print job. The job ticket, the job content (the page description language or PDL), and job-specific settings entered at the print server's GUI are additional points in the workflow where such attribute/value pairs can be supplied. Since different values for a given attribute may be supplied by these different attribute sources, printing systems generally employ a reconciliation process to determine which of these values to actually use, based on precedence or other fixed rules. These reconciliation processes may be complex.
Allowing attribute values to be programmed on each print queue of a printing system can significantly reduce labor and error rates, because each job sent to a given queue can inherit the attribute values of the queue rather than needing to be individually programmed with a large number of attribute values.
The process of programming a system's print queues is itself time consuming and requires system administrator (SA) expertise, as it can involve tens to hundreds of attributes on each of a large number of queues, and must consider many different job/workflow variants (and the frequency of each), which may vary over time. The SA must be intimately familiar with the system's attribute reconciliation process in order to understand how attribute value/pairs programmed on a queue will affect the values actually used by the system. Finally, some printing systems allow SAs to control the precedence level of queue attributes relative to other attribute sources, sometimes on a per-attribute basis. These precedence levels must be specified with care to achieve the desired outcomes.